Full-field breast ultrasound (FFBU) generally refers herein to the acquisition, processing, and/or display of breast ultrasound information as described in one or more of the Incorporated FFBU Applications identified supra. Most generally, the FFBU process includes acquiring volumetric ultrasound scans of a breast in a standard and repeatable manner, processing the volumetric data to form thick-slice images therefrom, and displaying the thick-slice images to a clinician. More preferably, the FFBU process is used as an adjunct to conventional x-ray mammography, with the thick-slice images corresponding to slab-like regions of the breast substantially parallel to standard x-ray mammogram view planes (e.g., CC, MLO) and being displayed simultaneously with one or more x-ray mammograms taken along those standard x-ray mammogram view planes. The FFBU process is also highly amenable to computer-aided detection (CAD) analysis, with CAD algorithms being performed on the three-dimensional volumetric ultrasound data, the two-dimensional thick-slice images, the x-ray mammogram data, or any combination thereof. Although directed primarily to forming the three-dimensional ultrasound volumes from B-mode scans, the FFBU process can be amenable to a variety of different ultrasound-based tissue imaging strategies including, for example, color Doppler, power Doppler, and vibrational resonance techniques.
In one or more of the Incorporated FFBU Applications, configurations are described in which ultrasound engines are integral with the FFBU acquisition systems and their associated system control/user interface systems. The ultrasound engines associated with those configurations are dedicated to FFBU operation only, and are not part of regular, general purpose ultrasound systems.
A problem can arise in that if a particular clinic wished to have both FFBU functionality and general purpose ultrasound functionality, they would need to procure, operate, and maintain two separate systems having two separate ultrasound engines. In practical use, the clinician would need to go back and forth between using the two separate systems, for example, using the FFBU for initial patient screening and then using the separate general-purpose ultrasound system for follow-up diagnosis, biopsy, or the like. From a manufacturing perspective, there would need to be two different product design cycles, implementation cycles, etc., for the two distinct systems. Moreover, if significant improvements were made, for example, in the capabilities of the ultrasound engine of the general purpose ultrasound system, the manufacturer(s) would need to make—and the clinics would need to buy—two separate upgraded systems to enjoy these advancements in both the general-purpose and FFBU systems.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a method and systems that at least partially obviates one or more of the impractical and/or inefficient scenarios described above.